Depending on the topic, it can be rather difficult to tell the difference between actual news and opinion at times. I’ve especially noticed this when the subject matter is particularly political. Luckily for me, I have not chosen a political topic in the slightest. I’m going to continue my coverage on the NWHL, which of course is the National Women’s Hockey League.
The first article that I’ve found comes at us from Sports Illustrated and is written by the Associated Press. It is most assuredly under the news category. From May 2019, it comes directly after around 200 NWHL players declared they wouldn’t play professionally for the league until the were paid a living wage. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) also just shut down because of “financial issues”. There is no opinion in the article, just facts. They do a great job of giving irrefutable facts.
Despite all of this, the NWHL is saying that they will increase play salaries and benefits. And that brings me to my second article. It’s from ESPN and it also is news. The Associate Press talks about the gains made salary-wise after they were “cut in half a little over a month into their second season.” At 10,000 to 26,000 per year, I’m not sure how anyone could have survived on that salary when it was whole, much less when it was cut in half! It’s not like these women were playing in a small town in Nebraska either, the Boston Pride are in Boston, MA and their home rink is where the Boston Bruins practice rink. As far as benefits, they’re increasing “travel and meal costs” so perhaps the women won’t have to foot that bill either. Again, no opinions here, facts only!
I’ve saved the hardest for last, the opinion pieces. The first opinion that I found came from the Ice Garden. That’s a website that is associated with SBnation.com, a blog site that I frequent to stay current on all the hockey teams that I actually follow. In this particular post, the author is voicing her opinion on what the five NWHL teams need to complete their roster for the upcoming season. While some of what she says is fact, one of the teams is still missing a goalie (and they definitely need one of those!), for the most part it is sheer speculation as to what they actually do need, and which striking player they need to replace.
My last article, my last opinion piece, is another blog. To be quite honest, I had never been on this on before. I had found it while on Reddit, looking up some information on the NWHL. In the article the author discusses why they feel it would be a good idea for the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins to own a NWHL team. While I understand where they’re coming from with their way of thinking with it, I don’t believe that it would be fruitful. At least not with the state of affairs the NWHL is in at the moment anyway. This particular article has both facts and opinion. The beginning of the article, where the author paints the picture for us the dire state of emergency the NWHL is actually in, is all fact. When they get down to the meat and potatoes of what they really wanted to say, the Penguins owners should bring the NWHL to Pittsburg, is purely their opinion.
I did not write a letter to the editor for any of these stories, nor did I tweet about any of them. I’ll be quite honest and just say that’s not really my thing. That said, if I were going to tweet something at someone, I truly think that it would be over the unjust payment here. Knowing the difference between the salaries of NHL players (thank you capfriendly.com) and knowing the salaries of NWHL players upsets me. The women play just as hard as the men, but they are paid pennies on the dollar to do so, and most don’t even get the health benefits to do so. Ridiculous!
